1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information terminal such as a cellular phone, in particular to a function selecting technology for the information terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a user wants to execute a desired function of a cellular phone, the user has to select a function on a display screen, and then start the selected function. In these days, since various functions are provided to the cellular phone, many menus are structured hierarchically in multi-steps. The user has to follow the multi-step hierarchy of menu and select a desired function. Since each function is associated with a menu number, the user may input a menu number directly to select the function quickly. However, unless the user memorizes menu numbers, the user has to carry out a complicated selecting operation.
As a technology for solving the above problems, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-274346 (Document 1) discloses a cellular phone in which predetermined keywords are associated with the respective functions and stored therein. When a user inputs a keyword to the cellular phone, the cellular phone displays a function name corresponding to the inputted keyword on a display screen. Also, in this cellular phone, the user is permitted to update a retrieval table for defining the association between the keywords and the functions.
In the cellular phone set forth in the document 1, the user has to carry out different operations with respect to the function and the user data respectively. In other words, in addition to the retrieval operation for the function name, the user carries out the retrieval operation for the user data such as phone number, mail address and Internet address. As described above, the cellular phone is on the way of straight line toward multi-functioning. As a result, it is getting more difficult for user to appropriately determine how he/she can obtain desired information; i.e., whether he/she should retrieve using the user data or the function name. That is, in the case where the user is not exactly aware of the information to be retrieved, or he/she is not familiar with the operation of his/her cellular phone, the user may carry out the retrieval using the user data and the function name successively.
For example, it is assumed that, after retrieving a function name, the user intends to connect with an Internet address associated with the function. In this case, the user retrieves the function first. On a guide screen of the function, when the user finds that an Internet address, which is one of the user data, has to be inputted, the user has to retrieve the user data anew. It is inconvenient for the user to repeat such a duplicated operation.